Tis the Season to be Busy

Man, Oh, Man....So much has been happening that it is hard to update everything they way I want to. It is impossible to do so without Internet at home. hopefully the Internet situation will change soon. So, I am going to do this as clearly as possible and use the bullet system.

• Merilee lost her first tooth and is now terrified to lose any more.
• Holland is pulling up to standing and starting to cruise. He has had troubles with ear infections and has not been happy the last couple months. He has left our Christmas tree alone!
• Not much has changed with Cara...she still likes cheese;) She is so funny, that I laugh just thinking about some of the things she says or does.
• Justin just got promoted to Captain....more money, longer days. His diabetes is under control and he is busy with work and family. He was just called as Sunday school president and leader of the Spanish speaking group at church.
• We have rented our house in Cushing to a family....STRESSFUL!! It is still for sale.
• Between being involved with Merilee's class and running a household mostly by myself, I am staying very busy. I was just called as Relief Society Secretary at church. There are so many deadlines, events, and bills to keep up with that I have had no time to get Christmas cards sent out. I am trying to get a newsletter put together, so maybe by February I will have something in the mail to friends and family. So, other than being sick off and on and the craziness of life, things are going well for us.

Merilee's first days of school

Merilee's first day of Kindergarten in Cushing. She started a few days late because we thought we would be closing on our house sooner and would just have her start once we moved. However, it was almost a month later that we actually moved so I am glad she got to go to school for a little while. She even had several of her friends form Pre-K in her class.

Merilee's first day of school in Sayre. Sayre started school on August 11 and Merilee started on September 21.

New House Befores

Master Bedroom after being painted and our new bed that my brother built.

Holland's room after being painted. It was bright pink.

Hall bathroom.

Girls' room after being painted half pink/half purple. It used to have a deer wallpaper boarder.

Dining room after being painted a beige. It used to be a minty green.

Kitchen. Not much has been done.

Living room view from entryway.

Front door.

There used to be a built in closet here and we took it out and painted the entryway white.

My mom and I taking down the wallpaper with a shark steam mop. Not easy.

My brother assembling some new toilet parts in our living room. Merilee and cousin Maren are looking on with interest.

Update

Wow, the month has flown by. I don't have much time so I will just touch on some highlights as I can think of them.

• Holland is crawling, sitting up, cutting teeth, and eating baby food
• Cara is hilarious!! (if you can understand her) She is keeping her panties dry at night so hopefully she is fully potty trained.
• Merilee did really well reciting her memorized scripture for the primary program. She is the top reader in her class and is reading 1st grade books. It amazes me how fast she has learned to read. She also learned how to tie her shoes from a little girl in her class. She can even tie a bow on her dress behind her back. She is amazingly smart just like I knew she would be.
• Justin got a new position at work and now works in the California office doing paperwork and working more hours.
• I have pretty much finished putting the house together and have plans to post pictures soon. I am trying to integrate myself into community type things and have not been bored so far. I really miss Cushing...mainly my friends there. That's all for now...it is freezing outside.

We Moved!

We are officially moved and things are crazy getting settled and Merilee back in school. I have to "borrow" Internet from the church by our house. Here is a picture of me and the girls using the Internet. It is just us and the church on the whole block, so it is nice and quiet. I hope to post pics of the house when it is suitable for viewing. It will probably be awhile until the next post.

Behind the girls is our hope-to-be-rental-house. It is in pretty good shape and we are using it for extra storage right now.

Menu for Sept. 8 thru 13

Spinach Artichoke Calzones
Macaroni and cheese with ham
Leftover Alfredo with roasted cauliflower
Taco casserole
Grilled country style ribs with salad
Leftovers or pancakes with sausage

Menu for Aug. 30 through Sept. 6

This week is going to be crazy. We finally are closing on our new house on Friday and will be staying there to get it cleaned and painted. We also won't have a stove or fridge, so I have had to be creative with my menu.

Mon- Ham and beans-crock pot
Tues- Healthy Alfredo sauce made with cashews over pasta with roasted cauliflower
Wed- Fresh pesto and tomato pasta
Thurs- at my mom's for dinner
Fri- closing on house- eat out to celebrate
Sat- Spaghetti and meatballs with salad
Sun- Sausage, potatoes, carrots, onion, in chicken broth- crock pot
Mon- at my mom's again or garlic chicken pasta with spinach

Cara turns 3 on Saturday, so I am trying to think of something special to do on that day, however we will be very busy painting 4 rooms. She won't know if we have a party a few days/weeks later, right?

Menu for Aug 23-29

Turkey sausage with roasted cauliflower
Fajitas
Avocado Chicken Salad
Chicken mango rice salad
Grilled steak with corn on the cob
Ham and potatoes
Ham and beans

Applesauce/oatmeal muffins
smoothies w/veggies

Luckinbill Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Menu for 8-16 thru 8-22

Avocado Chicken Salad
Cheesy Ziti

These two never got made last week because we had so many leftovers to eat for two of the dinners. We also had leftovers for lunch. That's what happens with only 1 adult and 2 kids eating.
Easiest Chicken Enchiladas Ever http://www.recipeshoebox.blogspot.com/

Chicken pesto pizza http://www.recipeshoebox.blogspot.com/

Spaghetti and meatballs with spinach

Taco Soup http://www.warriorkitchen.blogspot.com/ (in crockpot)

McDonalds for their $1.50 Happy Meals

Extras:
Strawberry filled oatmeal muffins http://www.recipeshoebox.blogspot.com/

Yummy granola http://www.warriorkitchen.blogspot.com/

Orange Julius http://www.warriorkitchen.blogspot.com/

We are still loving the smoothies!

Got a Penny?

Cara does....in her belly! She choked and then swallowed a penny tonight and I was advised by several people (fellow mommies and poison control) to take her to the ER. She had an X-ray and this is what they found.

It is kinda hard to see but the penny is right next to the spine on the right side (the shiny, white circle). The penny is on its way to the small intestine and should pass just fine. I have to search her stool and make sure she passes it by Monday. Otherwise, she will get another X-ray to make sure it is not held up anywhere. Her doctor's name was hard to say so he told her to call him, "Dr. Q". So, she called him Dr. Suess! She is too cute for words.

Earth, Fire, and Water

We had a few interesting things happen yesterday that Justin and I considered "blog worthy". We spent the morning packing and decided to go to the water park after dinner. We had been there about 10 minutes and were having a good time when I thought I saw a quarter under the water. So, I went to feel it with my foot, since I could not go under to get it while holding Holland. Well, it was not a quarter. Soon, Justin came over and I told him to go get the "quarter" or at least find out what it was (just in case I was wrong). So, he dives down and feels this thing and then comes up and says he thinks it is poop. I said that I thought it might be poop but wasn't sure. He is grossed out because he has just touched someones poop and I am laughing because I was the one who told him to go touch the poop. So, he tells the lifeguard standing in the water and she gets her manager to fish it out. Because it was poop, they had to empty the ENTIRE pool, including the kiddie pool. We thought we were going to have to leave because the water has to filter for 24 hours but then they said that it would only be 30 minutes. So, we all took bathroom breaks (where Justin thoroughly washed his hands) and we were good to go for the rest of the night. By the way, the poop did not come from my children. We had a good laugh about this.

Then as we were going out to the parking lot to go home, we saw someones car on fire. Of course, Justin puts Holland in the van and then heads over to see what is going on. There was a lot of smoke pouring out of the car but no one knew where it was coming from (hence, no flame). So everyone stayed back, in case it exploded of course. We called the fire department and they took their time getting there. It was neat to watch them all suited up, carefully approach the car. At this point all the lifeguards had come out and were sitting in the back of a pickup, enjoying the show. Most everyone else had gone home, but we stayed around to see the action. (at a safe distance). The firemen got their hoses and opened the trunk where the fire was. They started spraying down bags full of clothes. They said it looked like the trunk was too full of clothes and they were set on top or pushed on a "hot" wire. This caused the clothes to catch on fire and fill the entire car with smoke. (Good lesson in this!)

So, to go along with the title of the post:

Earth=poop, Fire=fire, Water=fun at the water park!

Menu for August 10-16

Pasta Carbonarahttp://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Pasta-Carbonara-2?pmcode=IKFDC04G&_mid=593800&_rid=593800.476300.378128
Skillet Tacoshttp://orgjunkie.com/2010/08/skillet-tacos-recipe.html
Chicken Caesar Wrapshttp://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Chicken-Caesar-Wraps
Chicken Pot Pie
Homemade sausage pizza
Cheesy ziti with sausage and glazed carrotshttp://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/04/cheesy-ziti.html
Avacado chicken saladhttp://recipeshoebox.blogspot.com/2009/04/avocado-chicken-salad.html

I also hope to make plenty of smoothies!

So obviously a lot is going on with our family lately. I am busy packing and planning on how to make our new house feel like a home. We haven't had any more luck selling our house, and I don't know what else to do. We are hoping that having our stuff out will be better for potential buyers. We will let is sit on the market for a few more months and then start looking for renters. As soon as our house does sell, we have some major renovation plans that will make our new house AMAZING! I am really excited for the work to be all finished and the worry of our "soon to be" old home to be over. I want to enjoy Merilee's Kindergarten year and being home with Cara and Holland. I see how fast they are growing and need to find that clock that slows down time! If you want to see the new house, you can post your email in the comments or facebook and I will send you the link. (I don't want to post it here, just in case someone creepy stumbles upon my blog and finds our where we live.) And here are some pictures of us this summer.

What's on my mind

I have so much to think about that I am ready to burst. So I am going to burst on my blog and then hope people can organize my messy thoughts and offer some helpful insight.

We bought a house. We have not sold our house yet! Stressful financially.
We don't close on our house until after Merilee starts school. She will miss her fist day of Kindergarten! Not okay with me!
I will have 2 houses to get in perfect condition..one to live in and one to sell.
I have the motivation and boxes to start packing but I have pretty much packed up non essentials, so we would be living out of boxes for a while, which is okay unless our house has a showing.
My kids are very needy right now. I hear a lot of "mommy, I want you" and lots of crying. Holland can't be put down and honestly, I don't want to carry him or have him tied to me all the time. I am struggling with the "I feel fat and ugly" thing right now because I have NO time to exercise and I eat when stressed.
As I type this, I feel like I am wasting time and it makes me what to cry....speaking of crying, Holland is awake, so there goes my nap!

Funny Story

This may seem embarrassing to Justin, but I think it is a sweet/funny story. We were at Justin's trailer in Sayre and I had to go to the bathroom and Holland was asleep. So, I needed Justin to hold him. As you see in the picture, there was a vent blowing VERY hard right on them and the blanket kept blowing off. So, I put my nursing cover on them and it looked like Justin was nursing Holland. So, I HAD to take a picture because I thought it looked hilarious. So, I typed a lot of "so". So, isn't this just the sweetest thing you've ever seen;)

Potty training

Potty training is a PAIN but it is worth all the trouble in order to have another child out of diapers. This was how I found Cara one day while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa. She went and found the potty all by herself.

Sleeping with Holland

I love pictures of sleeping babies, especially mine...so here are some for you to enjoy.
Holland probably cried himself to sleep in this picture while I fixed dinner or something because I don't put him in the boppy once he is alseep.

Grandma falls alseep pretty easily nowadays, but it was really late too;)

Aunt Morgan babysat while I went to the dentist and this is how I found them when I got home.

Traditional Daddy sleeping pose. This is his quality time with his son, for now.

Holland sleeping in his crib with his teddy bears. He still prefers the bassinet right now.

Holland's Blessing

I have to back up a bit because of our non-existent computer and post about Holland's blessing. A blessing in our church is a special prayer said for the child and to present him to the Lord and our church. We had most of our family there and it was a special day for Holland. He got to wear a white suit and was so wonderful through all the church meetings. Afterword we had a luncheon and we were able to sit around and visit without messing up my house.

Here is something to tide you over!

We have been without a computer for a long time now and I haven't had time to blog even if I wanted to, which I haven't. But, I don't want all this time to go by and then have nothing documented for months at a time, so here is some stuff to fill in a long gap. We finally got a new computer that has a web cam and so I sat down and tried it out by taking pictures of a few things. Holland is a big spitter upper and it gets EVERYWHERE!! So, I made a couple boppy covers yesterday that turned out really cute. I already had the fabric and supplies, so it was very economical and did I mention cute and easy;) It is hard to tell, but their are apples, lemons, ice cream cones, and purple and white flowers on the blue background (perfect for summertime).
Here is Merilee's Pre-K graduation picture. She is beautiful!

Here is one of Holland's birth announcements that I have not sent out yet. They are all basically the same with some different paper.

Here are Holland's 1 month pictures that turned out really good. I had no idea how to dress a boy for pictures. What do you dress them in? He was really sleepy and kept wanting to grab his face.

This one is in a frame and that is why it looks kinda funny.

And now I hear Holland waking up so I have no more time. He got shots today so he wants to cuddle, which is fine by me!

Holland and Easter